Another side video about the unique TEC-Lite indicators that I found inside the NASA C-Start rack module made by Control Data Corp. Enjoy!
NASA Apollo Era Digital Panel - https://youtu.be/KIuYmXT1M1E
Bad Space Movies You Must See - https://youtu.be/0_1dD_4n8Xc
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- Music by Fran Blanche -
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By Fran

14 thoughts on “A look inside a 1968 high voltage data indicator”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Årstatompa says:

    Amazing woman.I have also changed my eye glasses.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars sdf wer says:

    pin 1 probably an output that goes to whatever circuit is being operated by the button

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Charles Baetsen says:

    Cool and cleverly put together devices.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Pops Fereal says:

    I bought a panel with 6 of these and some other stuff at a motorcycle swap meet for 5 dollars….I may have given them away. Now I have to go look.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Curious Crandall says:

    Note the clever reduction of the required Vce for the transistor. The potential divider means that the 150V supply is only 81V on the collector when it's off. When the transistor goes off, the terminal voltage is below the sustain voltage of the neon, so it goes off.
    Oh, is the arrow backwards? Being Germanium and all…

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Kabuki Jo says:

    Back when most electronic parts were mad3e in the USA.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars JC Haywire says:

    I wonder if that insulator was Mica rather than Mylar.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars JC Haywire says:

    O lordy I have a ton of those indicator lites. Typically, though, I will hotglue an LED in there for my own purposes. Behind the lens–and sometimes a tiny loose wad of cotton from a Q-Tip–the LED glows convincingly vintage. I think I got them when I lived in MSP: the home of 3M, Control Data, and so many of these now-defunct American flagships.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Frank Pitochelli says:

    I love the homemade musical outtro…
    Cool and jazzy…. also have such cool stuff in many video's….the nasa/space stuff..👌👍

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Handyman says:

    I loved the music too.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars redare7 says:

    I think there is a bistable element in the circuit, the neon bulb. It has two states, conducting with low voltage drop, or insulating (off). The pushbutton briefly turns off the transistor and the bulb returns to insulating state.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars CampKohler says:

    As Dave Jones would say, "It's FranCad."

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars DadofScience says:

    I love seeing these devices in such detail. Love the idea of building stuff now using this sort of old school design just for the aesthetics of it.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Markus Allport says:

    I am amazed at the build quality of the switches for the era. Very forward thinking was needed and achieved I'd say.

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